Yeah!!! Let’s get down to the deal of the day. Miss Olajumoke, should parents structure the life of their child(ren)?

Yes, they should! At the early age, they should put 100% but as the child grows, it should be reduced. Especially when the child has started thinking of something he/she would like to become. They should just guide through the path and not authoritatively decide for them.

Some parents go to the extent of telling the children on who and what to become… this is really an interesting aspect.

Yes… it is. If you are raising a child to become a doctor, you should be sure the child is good at science but at that, you should still make sure the child likes and enjoys it. You can’t be forcing a child to like Chemistry and Physics when all he/she likes and enjoys is Government and Literature. Parents need to be very observant about their child(ren). Know what they like and help them build through it. You can’t be telling a child to become a doctor when he wants to become an engineer.

Yeah! Very funny. I know a girl… when she was little, her father wanted her to become a doctor; she tried but just couldn’t understand the mysteries of Chemistry. Then later, the father told her teacher to make her a lawyer- the girl just couldn’t handle it. She read English in the university. Isn’t that confusing to the child?

Hmmm… very confusing. They should ask her what she wants. I think when it comes to what a child wants to become, parents should ask the child for his/her opinion instead of being adamant in a particular profession that doesn’t interest the child.

Exactly! At a point in life, our parents should allow us to share our opinion(s). If my parents ask what profession I want to go into and they gladly accept my opinion- I am going to be happy; my parents would be happy and nobody would be frustrated at any point.

Hahaha! You know some couples even go to the extent of determining the gender of the child to come… o you think that’s good enough?

This is trying to tell God what to do…

That’s a discussion for another day.

Since your opinions is positive that parents should make decisions for their child(ren)… I’m quite sure you would agree that they can decide on who their child(ren) marry as well. Do you agree with that?

My positive opinion about parents deciding for their wards is that it shouldn’t be 100% decisive. My argument is that they should seek the child’s opinions. Why would parents decide on who the kids should marry? That’s not possible… NO! I can’t go back home and my dad would say this is the person you should marry… that’s not gonna work!

You sound angry…

All they can do is question the person I bring home and if it’s not ok by them, they give me genuine reasons. If I find these reasons intuitive enough, then I would cut it off because they are my parents and they have seen more than me… they have more experiences than I do. They can’t give me who to marry… never!

Any final note?

Yes! Parents should make decisions for their kids to put the child in an appropriate direction and asking for his/her opinion as well in order to make things easy for both the parents and the child. I also recommend that they pray because God knows best. I’m a philosopher that believes in God.

That’s it everyone, you’ve heard her and I’m a little certain that you would have one or two ideas on the topic.

Our parents;

They sometimes, go beyond the limit in deciding for us. This is because they believe we are young- no matter the age. I went to spend a weekend with my parents some time ago and when I wanted to go and play football on Saturday morning, my mother told me to go back to sleep. She said it was Saturday and I needed to rest.

There is no particular age at which we can argue that our parents should stop making the decision for us. There is nothing bad if they ask for our opinions at very early ages.

Please, share your view(s) below… see you next week; bye for now!

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